Brawl
Brawls are solo PVP events played in "surge" mode, where the active player goes second. Brawls typical start Friday US East Coast Standard Time (EST) at 12:00. In the game, start time is 16:00 Universal Time (UT).
energy
Each player is given 13 "brawl energy" at the start and regenerates at a rate of 1 energy every 30 minutes but does not regenrate when a player has 25 energy, which is the cap. This energy is unrelated to Mission Energy or PVP Stamina. Energy recharge ends six hours before the end of the brawl.
Brawls happen over a seventy-eight hour period, so each player has 157 brawl energy.
Previously, each player is given 25 "brawl energy" at the start and when a player uses one energy. Brawls happened over a seventy two hour period, so each player has 156 brawl energy, due to starting with full energy and no human player being able to spend 1 energy at the very start of the event. Brawls used to start at 18:00UT and because of the structure of energy recharge, a player will lose 1 energy if they do not spend at least one brawl energy by 18:29UT (a player who spends at least one energy by 18:29UT at the start of the brawl will be able to regenerate up to a total of 156 energy).
scoring
Using one brawl energy enters a player into a brawl match where a loss is worth 5 brawl points and a win ranges from 40 to 62 brawl points. brawl points for wins are determined by an undisclosed formula within the game. It is theorized that points are affected by factors including:
- commander health
- differential between number of cards on attacking and defending player side
- turn at which the match ended
This means that using structures or high delay cards in brawl or a short deck puts the brawler at a disadvantage:
- structures allow for opposing side to directly hit the commander (which is penalized in scoring)
- short decks do not maximize the differential between cards of the active and defending player
- high delay cards take longer to activate and end some matches later (in terms of turns) which also penalizes brawl scores
The aggregate score of every brawler is collected and every brawler is ranked. at the end of the 78hour brawl period, players are given rewards depending on the rank they end up at. Players try to maximize their scores by controlling other factors that affect brawl results, namely matchmaking and battleground effects.
matchmaking
Developers do not reveal the exact matchmaking system in order to avoid having players "game the system".
Previously, brawl matchmaking was based on brawl points - players with similar brawl points could be matched with each other. Currently, it has been observed that matchmaking is set wherein a player can be matched with a player regardless of rank. This ensures no player has an advantage by "sandbagging" or "slow playing" attacks.
The only known criteria for matchmaking announced by developers is that guildmates cannot be matched up. Two implications are: (1) guildmates cannot setup weak defense decks at the time when you are attacking (so no guild can give their members easy wins) and (2) being in a strong guild helps your chances in brawls, by eliminating matchups with powerful players. Because players cannot just simply "go into the strongest guild", they must try to improve their odds at winning by trying to capitalize on another factor affecting brawl outcomes - battleground effects.
battleground effects
Battleground effects, or BGEs are effects that happen in brawl. They add conditions to the gameplay of brawls which players can adapt to or capitalize on in order to better their performance. BGEs are added to brawls in order to give some deck archetypes a chance to perform better, and not simply allow one strong meta archetype to dominate brawls over a long period of time.
Brawls and wars are the only two event types which previously carried battleground effects, but the addition of conquest and Global Battleground Effects or GBGEs have made it so that mission, pvp battle, raids and conquest now have some form for BGE influencing them (for a majority of the time).